To redo my house from scratch because of the 'grey' fad?

[StormcloakNord]

DH and I just moved into a new(ish) house. Built in 2014 and the decor is very new and clean etc. Problem is everything, and I mean everything is grey. Grey walls, grey carpet, grey bathrooms and grey kitchen.

It's depressing. We have plans to move out of this house in about 5 years time but we're about to spend a couple thousand redoing everything. Carpets/walls/furniture.

Are we BU? Is the grey thing going to stick around for years and we've wasted money putting everything back to neutral?

It took four coats of white to cover bright blue here......

There’s a big difference between a nice, light grey with oak furniture and That Essex Look so I think a lot of it comes down to furniture and accessories.

Decorating overwhelms me, I can take months to choose a paint colour, paint the walls and hate it so I am likely to paint my whole house one colour, possibly grey, possibly white ... I am not sure yet.

YANBU to change the decor because you don't like it, but I wouldn't go as far as changing carpets or kitchens or bathrooms. Total waste of money and still likely to offend some so not useful when it comes to sell.

I would paint some walls in a colour you do like, change the accessories and maybe furniture, as you can keep those, but chances are that you'll want to repaint when preparing to sell anyway and then you will probably want to go with whatever is considered acceptably neutral at the time.

I like grey, it's inoffensively neutral and prefer it to 50 shades of beige. We have a grey kitchen that I won't tire of and don't care whether or not it is fashionable.

We're so lax in decorating that trends have usually come and gone by the time we get round to doing anything and I find it a bit baffling that so many people have an opinion on how others decorate their houses.

How have I managed to miss the grey fad? My house looks like an explosion in a paint factory and colourful accessories everywhere otherwise I'd probably curl up and die.

it's like "vajazzling" the house.

I don't see it as a 'fad' as sick. Everyone got bored of magnolia, went with light grey. People will get bored of light grey, and choose an equally u assuming neutral tone that goes with everything. Any light easy to match barely there beige, white or grey tone is basically the same principal. Difference is the need to sneer at those who had the previous or current incantation. People seem to fall into two camps when vocal about this. Either I've vomited bright colour everywhere and I don't give a crap what you think, or I've neutralised the feck out of my house and use accessories and don't give a crap what you think. The rest of us juts decorations out house without any concern for anyone.

When we were buying this house we completely discounted any houses that had been done but a local developer and they were all completely grey - floors, walls, kitchen, tiles, carpets, curtains.

Grey can be gorgeous if people are a bit imaginative with it. Mrs Hinchs house is bloody horrible and so so dull.

I'd brighten it up with rugs and cushions, get some bright wall hangings and so on. You might as well keep the carpets, kitchen and bathroom and jazz them up - you can get really good cabinet paint for the kitchen for example.

I wince whenever anyone says "pop of colour"

I wince whenever anyone says "pop of colour"

Yes, it is particularly irritating isn't it?

I just can’t imagine these houses that are all white with pops of colour how? Colourful cushions or rugs? I can’t picture this looking nice but maybe I have completely the wrong idea.

There’s no way I’d rip out a perfectly good carpet and kitchen surfaces for the sake of 5 years. That’s just wasteful. I’d paint the walls and get some rugs instead.

We redid our house last year. Beautiful greyish carpet that in some lights has a purple hue.

Living room is soft grey with deep red on one wall - hated by MN but loved by us.

We have pale pink walls where the carpet is laid. We love it.

Don’t care about trends. I went looking for carpets & fell in love with one so designed the whole house around the carpet.

In my first new home everything was magnolia & I couldnt afford to redecorate- will be a long time before I have magnolia walls again!

I personally hate grey and agree with the OP about monochrome houses.

Happy to say there is no grey in our home. Glad to see the back of the awful trend.

If you're planning on moving in a few years, I'd just paint it using neutrals. B and M/Wickes sell decent cheap neutral paint.

Just looked up Mrs Hinch on Instagram... what is this madness? Her tacky grey new-build has attracted 1 million + followers?? Please explain

It’s a bit unimaginative to write off a whole colour! There’s nothing wrong with grey (in moderation).

Personally I agree on grey carpets, I don’t like them. Our friends have bought a beautiful old Victorian house and are currently painting every room a battleship grey, it is tooooo much, a bit gloomy and rather lacking in imagination but it is can take it I guess as it has huge high ceilings and big windows.

We have grey kitchen units and I LOVE it. However our house is full of colour. No neutral palette here.

I can’t bear white everywhere. Even pops of colour can’t lift that from being stark and sanitorium-like.

We had magnolia inputladt flat with cream carpets, fucking hated that carpet. Every crumb, bit of dust or fluff was glaringly obvious. You’d Hoover then sit down and just see fluff everywhere, as we wear black socks it was terrible. The bland magnolia was depressing. New house was all white and I chose beautiful silvery grey carpets which don’t show up fluff as easily. I have a pale grey living room with red cushions, curtains and artwork and I love it. Didn’t do it because of a trend but because i was sick of magnolia and white, it’s my house in like it so what business is it if anyone else?

its availability as well. If I wanted a fabric sofa around 3 years ago there was a huge range of shapes in grey fabric and there really wasn't bold blues and emerald greens in lots of the shops I could afford - now people are stocking those.

It was the same with off the peg curtains 10 choices in greys and then 10 choices in all the other colours put together.

Some of the rooms in my house are grey, warm greys (Dove Tale & Elephant’s Breath). The colours really work in the rooms because they aren’t single colour palettes or even just duo colour palettes. Grey is the base neutral and there are other colours (maybe 3 or 4 colours and tones) and textures in the rooms to add interest and depth.

I think that’s probably why your ‘grey and yellow’ or ‘grey and pink’ schemes haven’t really worked. They probably feel a bit bland and unfinished.

The greys also work because they are the right tones for the orientation of the rooms they are in.

Jonathan Adler does white/neutral rooms with loads of colour well.

I'm always dabbling with interior design but never fancied anything grey when it became fashionable. I like colour.
I would keep the carpets though as long as they are neutral and not patterned.

it's YOUR house. Live with what's comfortable.

Grey everywhere is horrid. Some grey can be good. My kitchen/ diner is grey but has wood floor, yellow curtains, awesome William Morris tiles and a mix of blue and red kitchen units.

Sounds a little odd, looks amazing. Other parts of my house are dark teal, fresh springy green and I have calming duck egg plans for my bedroom which is currently still sporting it's fresh plaster look. Only a year and a half after moving in!

I like grey in the right tones - most of our house is bluey-lilac toned greys on the walls as a base to take colour on top of and for our house and our tastes it works well. I have a lot of very bright coloured prints hanging around the house and bright throws and rugs and the like.

I can't stand magnolia or plain white walls after years and years of renting so it's just people with different tastes to other people. Believe me - after years of an avocado bathroom with the green chicken scratch type tiles - our plain white suite and grey tiling and then bright towels is utter bliss!

I will maintain for all eternity though that I am never ever ever living with cream carpets again. Ever. Ever ever.